UK accountants are at risk of their pro-Europe stance hindering business growth, as just 13 per cent state leaving the EU will result in a commercial gain.

A study, conducted by IRIS Software Group, found a resounding 68 per cent of accountancy firms don’t believe invoking Article 50 will have an impact on their business. Of those who did believe Brexit will impact accountants, more felt this would be detrimental (18 per cent) than beneficial (13 per cent).

Despite the sheer volume of accountants who don’t feel Brexit will impact their practice, when asked how they would vote if the Brexit referendum was held today, 65 per cent stated they would vote to stay in the EU. This is an increase on a study carried out by IRIS prior to the referendum, which found 56 per cent of accountants were planning on voting against Brexit.

Rob Case, partner at accountancy firm Randall & Payne LLP, is surprised by the results, stating that despite their political beliefs, all accountants should be looking not only to support their clients in this time of uncertainty, but also seek out the opportunities that Brexit may create.

He says, “For accountants, any legislative change which impacts business finance and taxation should be viewed as an opportunity to advise and support our clients, and Brexit is no different. Those accountants who may not see the potential opportunity invoking Article 50 has could find themselves being left behind by the competition.

“For example, VAT is a European-wide tax and it’s currently unclear how this will change once we’re no longer in the European Union. Many will see this uncertainly as a negative, and the potential administrative burden may well be, but change can also equate to commercial opportunity, which may in turn lead to increased growth and profits.  Although having this information sooner rather than later is preferable for all concerned.”

The 18 per cent which stated Brexit will have a detrimental impact on their business may be worried about losing clients if invoking Article 50 results in companies moving abroad. However, Sion Lewis, CEO Accountancy Division at IRIS Software, believes accountants must position themselves as business advisers to support British business through this period of uncertainty.

He says, “It is a tumultuous time for accountants and their clients in the UK, with Brexit looming large and HMRC yet to reveal exactly what its

Making Tax Digital mandate will look like. Although the vast majority of accountants don’t believe Article 50 will impact the industry, it’s key they respond to the uncertainty surrounding this to position themselves as a vital part of their clients’ businesses.

“Now more than ever, businesses will be relying on high-level advisers to guide them through the difficult decisions ahead. By utilising the technology tools available to automate accountancy and communicate with clients online, firms can begin adding true value to businesses throughout the UK. Only then can accountants and their clients begin planning for growth in post-Brexit Britain.”

Verint^® Systems Inc. shows a 7% drop in customer retention compared to a similar survey conducted one year ago. This latest large-scale study of more than 24,000 consumers in 12 countries across nine industry sectors—conducted in partnership with Opinium Research LLC—found that consumers who prefer to do business through digital channels are more likely to swap providers than those that engage with businesses though human touch interactions, such as those that take place by phone via the contact centre or in-store.

Across all sectors,57% of consumers have been with their service providers for more than three years. Banks lead in terms of customer retention, with 73% of consumers reporting they have been with their provider for more than three years, whereas only 8% said they have been with their bank for less than a year. Mobile phone providers ranked second best, with 63% of consumers remaining with their provider for more than three years.

Japanese companies had the highest retention rates of all countries surveyed; an average of 64% of consumers have been with their providers for more than three years. French companies also fared well, with 60% of consumers staying with their providers for more than three years. Meanwhile, in the US, 55% of consumers have been with their service providers for more than three years. However, Brazilian, Indian, Mexican and British consumers are more prone to switching. Only 35% of Brazilians reported remaining with their providers for more than three years, followed by 46% of Indians, 50% of Britons and 50% of Mexicans.

The study also shows a clear link between communication channel preferences and retention. Consumers who prefer to engage with organisations digitally are more prone to switching providers. Just under half (49%) of those who prefer to engage with organisations via digital channels have been with providers for more than three years, compared with 58% who prefer to pick up the phone and 57% who prefer to go in-store.

Tapping into the impact that different customer experiences have on loyalty and brand endorsement, the research highlights that consumers who have a good customer service experience on the phone or in-store are more likely to behave positively toward a brand than when online. The study also revealed that consumers who have good experiences either in-store or speaking to someone on the phone are:

• 38% more likely to renew their product or service, even if it isn’t the least expensive option.
• 27% more likely to sign up to an organisation’s loyalty programme.
• 19% more likely to leave a positive review. 
   

“What’s clear is that a more personal touch in customer service helps drive retention and loyalty. This is a wake-up call for many organisations looking to introduce more digital channels with the aim of reducing costs and improving customer convenience,” notes Rachel Lane, director of customer analytics, EMEA at Verint. “As our research shows, consumers feel more positive about a brand when they interact directly with a person, so organisations need to consider how to make the digital experience more personal to avoid increased customer churn.”

Adds Lane, “Our research, which also investigated what service providers and brands believe their customers want, revealed that 91% recognise that customer service online should be quicker, more intuitive and better able to serve customer needs. That means organisations now need to focus on providing a more personal experience across all customer engagement channels to build the foundation for loyal customer relationships.”

Offline and online commerce are rapidly converging.  Brick & mortar retail models are rapidly changing. And consumers are increasingly demanding simple, fun and secure experiences no matter where or when they shop. Multilane merchants need a platform capable of supporting their vision for the future including digital offers, loyalty and payment, targeted marketing and seamless omni-channel connectivity. Verifone designed the M400 to enable this for its department store, specialty retailer, grocery store, hotel, quick service restaurants and convenience store clients.

"The M400 represents an entirely new level of design innovation for multilane merchants," said Glen Robson, EVP of Verifone Solutions. "We have the advantage of working with the world's best retail brands, and leading technology companies. And we spent countless hours working with our clients and partners to develop a device capable of fueling their vision for the future of retail commerce."

The M400 expands on the success of Verifone’s industry-leading MX series while incorporating new innovations and features for unprecedented investment protection, consumer engagement capabilities, and a seamless transition for merchants using MX900 series devices. Benefits for merchants include:

·       Accept any payment: EMV-capable, with integrated NFC and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for acceptance of all popular mobile wallets

·       Safe and secure: fully-supported PCI-certified device, compatible with Verifone end-to-end encryption and tokenization solutions for multi-layered security

·       Designed for consumers: sleek design, smaller footprint than Verifone MX series devices, and an enhanced, multi-touch, intuitive user interface

·       A marketing machine: stunning 5-inch display, split screen capabilities, increased memory to support full-motion video and hi-resolution graphics

·       In-store targeting: Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support for identifying consumers and delivering personalized offers via beacons

·       Build once, port multiple: highly secure Linux-based OS, development tools and App Marketplace, seamless porting of MX900 series to M400

·       Backwards compatibility: Verifone MX clients can leverage their existing installation to simplify upgrades (e.g.: cable, stand), saving on unnecessary costs

·       Retail ready: extreme durability for high-traffic multilane environments

“The Verifone M400 is an impressive solution that is ideal for meeting the growing demands of merchants and consumers in markets such as the Nordics that are serious in their efforts to drive advanced commerce,” said Hans Petter Hoel, CEO of Retail Payment, a Norway-based payment acceptance platform provider owned by the country’s leading retailers. “Our common goal is to ensure that future payments are customer-friendly, secure and cost efficient. As Retail Payment introduces an open omni-channel platform to the market as the de facto standard infrastructure for future payments, innovations such as the M400 improve the customer experience in store.”

Offline and online commerce are rapidly converging.  Brick & mortar retail models are rapidly changing. And consumers are increasingly demanding simple, fun and secure experiences no

matter where or when they shop. Multilane merchants need a platform capable of supporting their vision for the future including digital offers, loyalty and payment, targeted marketing and seamless omni-channel connectivity. Verifone designed the M400 to enable

this for its department store, specialty retailer, grocery store, hotel, quick service restaurants and convenience store clients.

"The M400 represents an entirely new level of design innovation for multilane merchants," said Glen Robson, EVP of Verifone Solutions. "We have the advantage of working with the world's

best retail brands, and leading technology companies. And we spent countless hours working with our clients and partners to develop a device capable of fueling their vision for the future of retail commerce."

Welcome to Advanced Commerce

The Verifone M400 is designed to serve as a cornerstone of a complete vertical solution. It will easily integrate with Verifone's Point Payment Solutions; Verifone Estate Manager (formerly

VHQ); the Verifone Commerce Platform;

Verifone e-Series mobile devices; and other

Verifone Engage family devices.
 

The M400 expands on the success of Verifone’s industry-leading MX series while incorporating new innovations and features for unprecedented investment protection, consumer engagement

capabilities, and a seamless transition for merchants using MX900 series devices.

Benefits for merchants include:
 

·       

Accept any payment: EMV-capable, with integrated NFC and Bluetooth Low

Energy (BLE) for acceptance of all popular mobile wallets

·       

Safe and secure: fully-supported PCI-certified device, compatible with

Verifone end-to-end encryption and tokenization solutions for multi-layered security
 

·       

Designed for consumers: sleek design, smaller footprint than Verifone

MX series devices, and an enhanced, multi-touch, intuitive user interface

·       

A marketing machine: stunning 5-inch display, split screen capabilities,

increased memory to support full-motion video and hi-resolution graphics

·       

In-store targeting: Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support

for identifying consumers and delivering personalized offers via beacons

·       

Build once, port multiple: highly secure Linux-based OS, development

tools and App Marketplace, seamless porting of MX900 series to M400

·       

Backwards compatibility: Verifone MX clients can leverage their existing

installation to simplify upgrades (e.g.: cable, stand), saving on unnecessary costs

·       

Retail ready: extreme durability for high-traffic multilane environments

“The Verifone M400 is an impressive solution that is ideal for meeting the growing demands of merchants and consumers in markets such as the Nordics that are serious in their efforts

to drive advanced commerce,” said Hans Petter Hoel, CEO of Retail Payment, a Norway-based payment acceptance platform provider owned by the country’s leading retailers. “Our common goal is to ensure that future payments are customer-friendly, secure and cost

efficient. As Retail Payment introduces an open omni-channel platform to the market as the de facto standard infrastructure for future payments, innovations such as the M400 improve the customer experience in store.”

Demo the Verifone M400 at the NRF Retail’s Big Show, January 14-17 in New York City. It will be available mid-summer 2017, initially in the U.S. and Norway.   

The European Banking Authority recently drafted the latest technical standards for the Payment Services Directive II (PSD2), which serves as the legal foundation for a new cross-EU payments market. In 2016, European e-commerce sales are expected to increase 17% to €183 billion and the use of payment service providers (PSPs) is increasing significantly. Couple this with the changing attitudes around Internet banking and online payments, it is no surprise that the directive is coming out at this time, as the payments market is changing at such a rapid pace.

A new standard is being defined for the market. But does PSD2 take Card Not Present (CNP) payments in the right direction? Within the latest draft, one of the key elements is the requirement for strong customer authentication for all transactions except those under a certain monetary threshold. However, strong customer authentication is most often to the detriment of the convenience for customers.

The inclusion of CNP transactions

The original password-based 3D Secure protocol (v1.x) added too much friction into the transaction and consequently suffered from a lack of user adoption. This, plus the prevalence of new payment methods like mobile and eWallet, have led the industry to call for an updated protocol.  Led by EMVCo, industry leaders and security vendors came together to develop the long-awaited, and recently released 3D Secure 2.0 protocol which eliminates static passwords and recommends a risk-based approach for card-not-present transactions (and several other new enhancements).

With a risk-based approach, every transaction is still evaluated to ascertain if it should be flagged as suspicious or potentially fraudulent. For most issuers, a typical fraud rate is <1-2%, so it is imperative to be able to identify only the highest risk transactions to challenge for further authentication.

The impact of customer authentication for card issuers

A major UK bank, found that when it moved away from mandatory password-based authentication for all transactions, it realised a 4% increase in transaction success rate as a result of improved customer experience. This translates to a 4% growth in transaction volumes, not only for issuers, but also for the merchants, the card schemes and the acquirers, and most importantly the customers. However, if friction to the end user experience is added, it’s possible to lose 4% of sales. That is not a figure any provider in the e-commerce ecosystem wants to be reporting to their key stakeholders.

Experience from the field

What about the increased fraud? We’ve found that risk-based authentication can improve fraud detection rates when compared to 100% authentication. Issuers, merchants, acquirers, card schemes and, especially, cardholders benefit tremendously from a risk-based approach. Less fraud and less friction is a win-win combination.

Despite the successes from this approach, there’s always room for even higher fraud prevention rates with improved omni-channel visibility. For example, when looking at card-issuing banks in the UK, the bank’s view of a digital footprint starts at application for the new card account, and is reinforced through every interaction the customer has with them. This includes every time a user logs into online banking and every time a CNP transaction is carried out online. In isolation, an expensive watch being purchased online may look like a high-risk transaction. However, when cross-referenced, the bank will see it’s the same device from the same location that was used to open the credit-card account giving them much greater confidence that the transaction is being performed by the legitimate cardholder. Is it necessary for the user to get up and go find the hardware token to authorize a low risk transaction?

What the future holds

The EBA is being overwhelmed by the amount of responses to the technical standards consultation. The industry is saying that the proposed technical standards are counterproductive to the goals of the PSD2 and even the 3D Secure 2.0 protocol – to provide strong customer authentication and a friction-less customer experience. In the card not present space it took more than ten years, but issuers and merchants learned that a challenge all approach did not work and thus a major change was necessary.

Such is the nature of the technology required to address the ever-changing fraud threat, organisations must incorporate layered fraud prevention using a number of technologies. Vendors will need to do much more to provide components that fit neatly into the organisation’s architecture to address a specific problem.

To challenge the EBA, it’s necessary to look at the bigger picture, and not just the transaction in isolation. Of course, they will cite the fact that not all PSPs are equipped with the resources and the data available to big banks. This may be true, but the directive needs to be flexible enough to adapt to that. Don’t penalise the issuers, the merchants, the card schemes, the acquirers – and most importantly, customers – by introducing unnecessary friction that won’t do anything to improve the fraud prevention rate.

The European Banking Authority recently drafted the latest technical standards for the Payment Services Directive II (PSD2), which serves as the legal foundation for a new cross-EU payments market. In 2016, European e-commerce sales are

expected to increase 17% to €183 billion and the use of payment service providers (PSPs) is increasing significantly. Couple this with the changing attitudes around Internet banking and online payments, it is no surprise that the directive is coming out at

this time, as the payments market is changing at such a rapid pace.

A new standard is being defined for the market. But does PSD2 take Card Not Present (CNP) payments in the right direction? Within the latest draft, one of the key elements is the requirement for strong customer authentication for all transactions

except those under a certain monetary threshold. However, strong customer authentication is most often to the detriment of the convenience for customers.

ABBYY®, a leading provider of technologies and solutions to action information today announced theavailability of ABBYY Smart Classifier on the European market. The new product enables businesses to leverage and act on complex,unstructured information by delivering highly accurate document classification. Based on Compreno®, ABBYY’s innovative natural languageprocessing (NLP) technology, Smart Classifier quickly organises large repositories of documents according to both statistic and semanticanalysis of content. Once classified, information is ready for search and retrieval, automated routing, intelligent data extraction and decision-making.

Allocating relevant information to the responsible entity at the right time is key in today’s fast-paced world. However, the vast majority ofincoming data is unstructured, which hinders businesses from automated, machine-based access and processing – and from using it to theiradvantage.

“ABBYY Smart Classifier empowers companies to derive value from the data stream that constantly pours into their business,” says JuppStoepetie, CEO of ABBYY Europe. “Documents are automatically assigned to predefined categories on the basis of their content. Thislanguage-based insight into information creates new opportunities to optimise critical business processes – including informationgovernance, data migration, content management and client support.”

ABBYY Smart Classifier is a scalable server-based document classification module for categorising unstructured information based onstatistics

With the goal to increase the value and usability of loyalty points, Verifone (NYSE: PAY), a global leader in payments and commerce solutions, and FIS(NYSE: FIS), a global leader in financial services and payments technology, announced a collaboration to enable consumers to pay with loyalty points linked to their credit or debit cards at the point-of-sale (POS).

Verifone developed a new application called Verifone Points Redemption which connects to the FIS Premium Payback Network to provide a quick, secure, and easy way for third party loyalty programs to participate. Merchants will be able to download the free app to their device from the open, cloud-based Verifone Commerce Platform and eligible cardholders only need to swipe, dip or tap their card at a participating retailer, to pay for their purchases with points.

“We are helping merchants and consumers realize the value of loyalty programs by bringing points redemption to the shopping experience right where it counts—at the checkout,” said Glen Robson, executive vice president, Head of Verifone Solutions. “With FIS’ loyalty solution accessible through the cloud on our devices, merchants have a simple way to enhance the checkout experience by offering their customers immediate savings on in-store purchases using points.”

Research shows that every year up to $16 billion in loyalty points are left unused or forgotten. FIS’ Premium Payback has shown the ability to combat that, however. In fact, nearly one of five Premium Payback users have said they selected merchants based on the ability to use their reward points.

“Today’s consumers have been digitally empowered and expect tomorrow’s payment and rewards capabilities today,” said Bruce Lowthers, executive vice president, FIS Global Retail Payments. “The single integration point to brick-and-mortar retailers uniquely helps loyalty programs increase member touch points, while our relationship with Verifone expands the reach to bring scalable loyalty points redemption to many more consumers.”

When a shopper presents a loyalty-linked card payment on a Verifone device, it will prompt them automatically when enough points are available to pay for their items, eliminating the hassle of vouchers or ordering gift cards. The yes or no prompt is quick and easy and specifically designed not to slowdown the checkout process. The connection between Verifone and FIS is being powered by Modo’s COIN^® operated Digital Payments Hub.

The FIS Premium Payback Network currently supports loyalty points redemption at thousands of gas stations nationwide for 8.5 million consumers from 3,100 banks.

Visit the Verifone Booth #3543 and FIS Booth #624 at the NRF Retail’s Big Show January 14-17 in New York City.

 Equinix Inc., the global interconnection and data center company, today announced global financial cloud infrastructure provider, Beeks Financial Cloud, has deployed on Equinix's Cloud Exchange as it continues to expand its business globally.

Beeks Financial Cloud leverages Cloud Exchange and Platform Equinix™ to connect its customers to global cloud services and networks via a secure, private and low-latency interconnection model. By joining the Equinix Cloud Exchange, Beeks Financial Cloud gains access to instantly connect to multiple cloud service providers (CSPs) in 21 markets, build a more secure application environment and reduce the total cost of private network connectivity to CSPs for its customers.

Highlights / Key Facts

• Today, banks, brokers, forex companies and professional traders are increasingly relying on high-speed, secure and low-latency connections for more efficient business transactions, as demand for data centers and colocation services in the cloud, enterprise and financial services sector continues to grow. According to a July 2016 report by Gartner – Colocation-Based Interconnection Will Serve as the 'Glue' for Advanced Digital Business Applications – digital business is "enabled and enhanced through high-speed, secure, low-latency communication among enterprise assets, cloud resources, and an ecosystem of service providers and peers. Architects and IT leaders must consider carrier-neutral data center interconnection as a digital business enabler."
• Beeks Financial Cloud, a UK-based company, first deployed in an Equinix London data center four years ago on one server rack, now has approximately 80 interconnections within Equinix across eight data centers situated in financial business hubs around the world. These direct connections provide increased performance and security between Beeks and its customers and partners across its digital supply chain. Beeks was the first provider in the world to use cross connects to ensure a retail trader customer had a direct connection to their broker.
• Beeks' new deployment in Equinix's Cloud Exchange provides the necessary digital infrastructure and access to a mature financial services business ecosystem to connect with major financial services providers in key markets around the globe via the cloud. Equinix's global data centers are home to 1,000+ financial services companies and the world's largest multi-asset class electronic trading ecosystem— interconnected execution venues and trading platforms, market data vendors, service providers, and buy-side and sell-side firms.
• Equinix's Cloud Exchange offers software-defined direct connections to multiple CSPs including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute and Office 365, IBM Softlayer, Oracle Cloud and others. This has allowed Beeks to scale up rapidly while securely connecting to multiple cloud providers.
• Beeks Financial Cloud has continued to expand its business on Equinix's global interconnection platform of 146 International Business Exchanges™ (IBX®) in 40 markets across the globe. Beeks is currently deployed in Equinix's International Business Exchanges™ (IBX®) in London, New York, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Chicago, and most recently, Hong Kong.
• The move to Equinix's Cloud Exchange is expected to help save approximately £1M over the next 3 years, while enabling Beeks Financial Cloud to meet the needs of its global customer base who thrive and grow through forex trading.
• London is a key player in the global digital economy, with the fifth largest GDP by metropolitan area in the world. Equinix's flagship London data center based in Slough (LD6) is one of the fastest-growing in the UK and has been established as a hub for businesses to interconnect in a secure colocation environment.

Quotes

• Gordon McArthur, CEO, Beeks Financial Cloud:
  "Beeks Financial Cloud has continued to grow rapidly on Equinix's interconnection platform, with Hong Kong being our eighth addition. Data centers underpin our business and we are confident that Equinix's Cloud Exchange will enable the speed, resilience and reduced latency our customers have come to expect from our company. Equinix's global footprint of interconnected data centers has allowed our business to really thrive."
• James Eibisch, research director, EMEA Telecoms and Networking, IDC:
  "We see the global demand for data center colocation being largely driven by cloud adoption. That coupled with the expanded reach of Equinix's global interconnection platform is a compelling offering for businesses such as Beeks that require connectivity and access to new markets to meet business demand."
• Russell Poole, managing director UK, Equinix:
  "We're seeing an increasing number of customers leverage our interconnection platform to expand their businesses globally. The rapid growth of the cloud industry is driving activity in all business sectors including financial services – we are seeing more businesses partner with us to host their critical financial infrastructures off-premise in our data centers in order to get the best out of the cloud. On Equinix Cloud Exchange, we are confident Beeks Financial Cloud will continue to accelerate its growth and move quickly into new markets."

WEX Inc., a leading global provider of corporate payment solutions, today announced that it has signed a new agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management in Canada. The partnership supports Enterprise's growth in the Canadian market through WEX's Canadian fleet capabilities.

WEX and Enterprise Fleet Management have been working together since 1993 in the United States. Leveraging the Canadian fueling locations now available through WEX's acquisition of EFS, the expanded partnership will deliver WEX products to Enterprise Fleet Management customers throughout Canada as well.

"WEX is a global company servicing markets throughout the world. We are looking forward to this new chapter in our partnership with Enterprise and the opportunity for us to expand our presence in Canada," said Melissa Smith, president and CEO of WEX, Inc. "WEX and Enterprise have a long, successful history together, and we're certain that working in tandem to bring our offering to Canada will prove beneficial to everyone involved."

"We're thrilled to extend our 24-year partnership with WEX into the Canadian market," said Brice Adamson, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Fleet Management. "We have a great history of working collaboratively with WEX, and we are confident we will see continued success through this expanded agreement."

Radware®, a leading provider of cyber security and application delivery solutions ensuring the digital user experience for applications in virtual, cloud, and software-defined data centres, has found that hackers and companies agree on one thing: Data is lucrative.

Radware’s Global Application and Network Security Report 2016-2017 revealed that 49% of European businesses confirmed cyber-ransom was the #1 attack motivation in 2016, an increase of nearly 100% from the 25% recorded in 2015. What’s more, 25% of European IT professionals surveyed said they were worried about a full or partial outage from cyber-attacks, 23% said data leakage or loss was their key cyber security concern, 18% said reputation loss, 7% were concerned with service degradation and 6% feared customer or partner loss.

Despite this rise, the study revealed that less than half of European businesses interviewed claimed to be well prepared to fight ransom attacks with 44% having no cyber security emergency response plan in place. Additionally, 77% said they didn’t have cyber-insurance for their business and only 5% keep bitcoins on hand for ransoms.

The full report identifies 2016’s major attack trends, outlines industry preparedness, and gives insider views. The biggest findings included:

• 49% of European respondents reported that ransom was the top motivation behind cyber-attacks they had experienced in 2016, followed by competition (30%), political hacktivism (27%), and insider threats (20%).
• Half of all organisations surveyed globally had experienced a malware or botnet attack in the past year, and 55% said that IoT complicates their detection or mitigation requirements as it increases the surface of the attack landscape making it harder to defend.
• Global respondents felt least prepared to defend against Advanced Persistent Threats (43%)
• Massive DDoS attacks made headlines in 2016. These big attacks can do a lot of damage: Globally, 35% reported impact to their servers, 25% claimed damage to their internet pipe, and 23% said large-scale attacks caused the failure of their firewall.
• More than 76% of European DDoS attacks reported by organizations were under 1 Gbps.

“The message from our report couldn’t be clearer: Money is the top motivator in the threat landscape today,” said Pascal Geenens, Radware’s EMEA Security Evangelist. “Attackers have expanded their skillset and are leveraging new tools in their attempts to access lucrative data. Whether it is a ransom attack to lock a company’s data, a DDoS smokescreen to facilitate information theft or a brute force attack to attempt to gain direct access to internal data, attackers have shown that unprepared businesses will be easy targets.

“We expect these attacks to continue to gain momentum as the Darknet becomes mainstream and offers relatively easy and affordable access to powerful tools and hacking services that can wreak havoc on businesses. The scope of attacks available will also grow due to the huge increase in unsecure IoT connected devices that reside in our homes, offices, and even on our person. Our report shows that most organisations are still not prepared to fend off many of the more sophisticated attacks or deal with ransom attacks.”

Key trends for 2017 from the report include:

• With the code for the Mirai IoT Botnet now available to the public, novice and sophisticated hackers are already adjusting and “improving” the code’s capabilities, tailoring it to meet their own cyber objectives. In 2017, exponentially more devices are expected to become targeted and enslaved into IoT botnets. IoT device manufacturers will have to face the issue of securing their devices before they are brought to market, as botnet attacks from these devices can generate large-scale attacks that easily exceed 1 Tbps. 
• Cyber ransom is the fastest-growing motive and technique in cyber-attacks, as most phishing attempts now deliver ransomware. Today, threat actors focus their ransom attacks to target phones, laptops, company computers, and other devices that are a daily necessity. In the future, they may target lifesaving healthcare devices like defibrillators.
• Rise of Permanent Denial of Service (PDoS) for Data Centre and IoT Operations: Also known loosely as “phlashing”, PDoS is an attack that damages a system so badly that it requires replacement or reinstallation of the hardware itself. While these attacks have been around for a long time, they only appear sporadically. However, they can do a tremendous amount of damage. Radware anticipates that more threat actors will target the destruction of devices via PDoS attacks in the coming year.
• Telephony DoS (TDoS) is expected to rise in sophistication and importance, catching many by surprise. Cutting off communications during crisis periods, such as terror attacks, could impede first responders’ situational awareness, exacerbate suffering and pain, and potentially increase loss of life.
• Public transportation held hostage. From trains and planes to buses and automobiles, entire systems of transportation are becoming self-guided. This automation is meant to provide increased safety, improved reliability, and higher efficiencies. Most of this critical infrastructure may be vulnerable to threat actors looking to hijack public transportation or lock the system down with ransomware. 

“The intent of today’s threat actor is to develop the best tools possible to either disable an organisation or steal its data,” said Geenens. “While businesses focus on delivering the highest value to their customers, they will also have to stay vigilant and ensure they are able to meet the security challenges they will likely face. Security must be woven into the customer experience for a company to truly succeed. Without this change in thinking, organisations will remain vulnerable.”

Radware’s Emergency Response Team (ERT), which actively monitors and mitigates attacks in real-time, creates this annual report for use by the security community. The ERT team compiles this report using a combination of data from a vendor-neutral survey of organisations, Radware’s in-the-trenches experience fighting cyber-attacks, as well as the perspective of third-party service providers. The goal of this report is to provide the industry with insights and best practices to help prepare for 2017’s security landscape.

Freelancers and micro-business owners who have yet to register their business with HMRC are rapidly running out of time if they want to get their Self Assessment tax return submitted to HMRC, FreeAgent has warned.

 The company - who provide award-winning cloud accounting software for freelancers, micro-businesses and their accountants - has warned business owners that failing to register for Self Assessment in the next week will mean they are unlikely to be able to submit their tax return on time, and will be fined by HMRC.

 Emily Coltman FCA, chief accountant at FreeAgent, said: “Before you can submit your Self Assessment tax return you must first register with HMRC and get your unique activation code sent to you by post. You simply cannot file your return without this.

 “It’s a relatively straightforward process but, as you’re relying on snail mail to get your code, it can take a while to receive the information you need. And if you leave it too late, you won’t get your code in time to be able to meet the January 31st deadline.

 “Remember that HMRC doesn’t accept failing to register in time as an acceptable excuse for filing a tax return late, so if you don’t get your code and you can’t submit your Self Assessment return, you’ll receive an automatic £100 fine. In addition, if you don’t pay your tax you’ll also face extra financial penalties which can quickly escalate.

 “It’s better to act quickly and register with HMRC now than risk leaving it until it’s too late.”

 During the last Self Assessment season, 870,000 people failed to submit their tax return before the January 31st 2016 deadline; leading to automatic £100 fines from HMRC.  

 In addition to failing to register with HMRC on time, Emily has also highlighted three other common mistakes that freelancers and micro-business owners make on their Self Assessment tax returns.

 1- Failing to declare all income

 When you’re filling out your tax return, you must remember to include all of the income you’ve earned during the year - not just what you’ve received via your main employment. This includes:

• Any income that you had invoiced, or for which you’d done the work, before 5th April 2016, but which your customers did not pay you for until after that date (unless you’re using the cash basis to prepare your accounts)

• Any other source of income - for example from another job, interest on a savings account or rent earned from property. You must have all of the relevant paperwork for this income (such as your forms P60 and P11D from your employer and your bank interest certificates) and remember that these will all have to relate to the tax year 2015/16.

• Tax-free income - such as interest earned on an ISA - should not be included on your tax return.

 2- Leaving out other important information

 You also have to include important information about expenditure that you have made for your business on your tax return. Failure to include these could result in you paying an incorrect amount of tax. These include:

• All of your business costs - i.e anything you paid for yourself rather than from the business’s bank account. This includes any business costs that you incurred before the business started to trade, as long as you spent the money no more than 7 years before the start of your business and the cost could have been included if you had incurred it after the start of your business - e.g, costs like getting business cards printed before you made your first sale.

• Unless you’re using the cash basis to prepare your accounts, you need to include any large pieces of equipment (or capital assets) that you bought for your business.  These don’t go in as day-to-day running costs but you may be able to claim capital allowances on them.

 3 - Including unclaimable expenses

 If you don’t get all of your expenses correct, you won’t pay the right amount of tax. So make sure you follow the correct rules around business clothing, entertaining, food & drink, business use of home and travel expenses - because there are many common mistakes that small businesses make with regard to these.

 Either check HMRC’s website or look for an alternative source of small business accounting information to find out which expenses you can and can’t claim tax relief on before you tackle your tax return.